I'm sorry I didn't know I was going to be critiqued on my character. Like the other said, I made choices creating my character based on my conception of them, not how they were going to mesh with the rest of the party. But like I also said, I'm perfectly fine flexing some things since the bard is usually good like that. As long as it doesn't take away from the character concept too much I'm probably going to be ok with whatever you all want to do.
Character Backstory (Including how your character came to be in the Yawning Portal Inn): Born into the rising noble house of Meliamne, Kelytha's High Elf father tried in vain to raise her as a proper and correct Elven Lady of society. Perhaps it was the human part of her, or maybe it was just how she was created, but Kelytha could never settle with that lifestyle. From a young age she was playing in the dirt with the local children, mostly sons and daughters of tradespeople, actively avoiding the children of the other high families of Waterdeep. As they grew up, her friends all had to focus on their work, helping their families get by, and one by one they drifted away. On the brink of adulthood she surprised her father by announcing that she wanted to join the City Watch, something practical she could do to help the people of the City like her old friends, those without power. Her father forbade her but she left anyway, signing on that day.
For a few years it worked. Being given orders grated on her but she held her tongue. Her strength and charisma endeared her to the other watchmen, and she was even made a sergeant, one of the youngest on the Watch. But the same injustices she had seen while growing up were still there, perpetuated by a Watch that took its orders from some of the very people who needed investigating. One day an old childhood friend of hers was arrested - son of a blacksmith, in self-defence he had injured a wealthy patron who had become violent when not satisfied with her friend's work. The patron held sway with the Black Robes and her friend was sentenced to (death/life imprisonment?). Kelytha tried to help him escape, but he was spotted and brought down by the guards. There was no proof it was Kelytha who had helped him, but her Captain knew about their connection and suspended her. She never came back to the Watch - she sold the standard-issue shortsword and bought a longsword from the father of the man who had died. She took to investigating crimes personally, doing what she could to help those the Watch could not or would not help.
Today she finds herself in the Yawning Portal. Things have not been going well lately, and she is down to her last few Dragons. It's not a wise use of them, but she's going to drink her troubles away. Plus it's always entertaining to watch the adventurers go down the well.
Perhaps she recognises Eilla and Cat from her youth? Maybe they used to look down on her as a pretender from a rich family, or maybe they pitied her for her strict father? Kelytha is 23, so they are both older - maybe they didn't actually know each other that well, but enough to recognise from across the bar? As a youngish child, when they would have run in the same circles, I imagine she had a bit of an ego, reacting against her father but still holding herself a little above most others. That's certainly been knocked out of her by this point.
Character Personality: Kelytha is an easy person to like - she can be crude and loud, but never malicious. It's unclear how much of that is a mask, though - she knows how to be polite and civil, she was taught it by a succession of frustrated tutors, and can turn it on and off, but is her rough nature also a front, a deliberate reaction against her upbringing? She feels beholden to look after those who can't stand up for themselves, and will step into any situation where she feels someone is being bullied or taken advantage of, whether that is a wise decision or not. If not, she will never admit it, will never back down, whatever the outcome.
I think of the two characters, you should of course play the one you're more excited about! We can adapt to whatever you throw at us. : )
Maybe unusual for a RPG player, but I'm more interested in being part of a cohesive party that manages to keep a fun campaign moving.
If the party wants me as a player but doesn't care which character, then I'd say barbarian just because it'll be a little less time and effort for me. (I think that I have a better handle on the barbarian class than on the monk.) I worry that he may be a little "flat": just a generic, low intelligence barbarian. The monk may be a little more unique, but I expect that it'll take me some time to work out the details of his personality and how the monk class works mechanically.
I think of the two characters, you should of course play the one you're more excited about! We can adapt to whatever you throw at us. : )
Maybe unusual for a RPG player, but I'm more interested in being part of a cohesive party that manages to keep a fun campaign moving.
If the party wants me as a player but doesn't care which character, then I'd say barbarian just because it'll be a little less time and effort for me. (I think that I have a better handle on the barbarian class than on the monk.) I worry that he may be a little "flat": just a generic, low intelligence barbarian. The monk may be a little more unique, but I expect that it'll take me some time to work out the details of his personality and how the monk class works mechanically.
I actually think being interested and invested in your character and the other characters is critical to being part of a cohesive party that keeps a fun campaign moving, much more so than being mechanically "good", but I understand that people enjoy the game in different ways, I'm not saying that your way is wrong just to be tolerant of others playing the way they want to play as well. : )
Sinak would see the obvious strength and charisma in Kelytha, and know that this was not someone to be trifled with. He would observe her conversations, watch her from across the room. Like with the others, he worries that his “dark elf” heritage would lead to mistrust, false stereotypes, so he would be very careful not to advance those, careful in his words and actions. He would wait for the right opportunity to prove himself, to show that he is worthy of friendship, and a partner to be trusted.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
A wizard is never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to.
I actually think being interested and invested in your character and the other characters is critical to being part of a cohesive party that keeps a fun campaign moving, much more so than being mechanically "good", but I understand that people enjoy the game in different ways, I'm not saying that your way is wrong just to be tolerant of others playing the way they want to play as well. : )
Yep, it's all good! I just meant that I'm relatively new to PbP, and the way these recruitment threads works is new to me. All of my previous RPG experience was in person with people who were already friends the real world. Since we were always starting with the players first, everyone had to be a little flexible in building their characters.
What we’ve been doing in the recruitment thread is a little more of what would typically go on in the OOC chat thread as a “session 0”, but it is the DM’s call on how to do that and if it is helpful to be able to make a pick to round out the crew then I’m all for it.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
A wizard is never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to.
Let's see, how would Eilla react to Kelytha? Assuming Eilla is 30 that would mean she would have known Kelytha no older than 11 or so assuming Eilla shipped off at 18. So she might have been protective of the younger Kelytha, just making sure she didn't get in trouble while slumming. Another possibility, Eilla has been back at Waterdeep several times in the years she's been sailing, so depending where Kelytha was stationed (Dock Ward most likely for this) they might have run into each other, either positively or negatively.
Thanks everyone for your engagement. I agree this is a bit like a session zero, which was partly my intention. I hope that we can all agree that we are here to have fun and that we all want excited and engaged players. I doubt that anyone is interested in a min /max character. There is very little point anyway as I will just scale the encounters appropriately. I hope that you all feel that your characters are your own and we are here to roleplay and select what works best for your characters. Obviously the party needs to work and the level of interaction and interest in each others characters in such a short time is impressive, which gives me a good feeling that we have knowledgeable and engaging players. From my experience of the players on this thread I would encourage anyone to see posts as positive engagement and no criticism would be intended.
I think that we are iterating towards a good party, much quicker than I was expecting, and I hope that you feel that this has been a useful and open process. My mad idea was to do this now to allow players the maximum amount of freedom and control, before I drop a dragon on you :-)
Based on the current progress, if the players are in agreement, I would hope to finalise selection over the next few days with the game starting on Saturday
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Gan-Re: Aarakocra Barbarian - The Wild Beyond the Witchlight | DM - Keys of Empire
@EMIW. A really great character, I'm very impressed. I could see this fitting in really well with the rest of the team. The engagement with our resident Drow Cleric could be fun :-)
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Gan-Re: Aarakocra Barbarian - The Wild Beyond the Witchlight | DM - Keys of Empire
Let's see, how would Eilla react to Kelytha? Assuming Eilla is 30 that would mean she would have known Kelytha no older than 11 or so assuming Eilla shipped off at 18. So she might have been protective of the younger Kelytha, just making sure she didn't get in trouble while slumming. Another possibility, Eilla has been back at Waterdeep several times in the years she's been sailing, so depending where Kelytha was stationed (Dock Ward most likely for this) they might have run into each other, either positively or negatively.
Good point, Eilla was/is in the Marines yeah? Sailors are know for getting pretty rowdy when on shore leave :P Maybe Kelytha had to have a word with Eilla's unit one time, or break up a fight.
I am looking forward to the final party coming together! To be honest I've debated within myself a bit which college to go for Ballen, though Whispers is my first choice, but Spirits would be fun too. If there is a suggestion though to better fill a niche with the party though let me know! I think her heritage and background are pretty set, but perhaps some of her proficiencies could be moved around a little maybe.
@EMIW. A really great character, I'm very impressed. I could see this fitting in really well with the rest of the team. The engagement with our resident Drow Cleric could be fun :-)
Thanks, I thought Which of my 30 unused characters should I apply with? Then I thought None of them! A new character! I realise now that she's a collection of pretty common tropes but hopefully they work well together.
I have no doubt that everyone here has good intentions and just wants the game to go smoothly. That being said, I do wanna throw in my two cents to justify my decisions. The reason I made Cat a guild artisan in the first place is because Waterdeep has such an abundance of guilds and it's an oft-ignored portion of the world I was hoping to interact with that portion of the world. Sage is fine, I guess, but I don't really want to make Cat an academic. I'd rather her be an eccentric self-taught genius attached to a merchant guild as opposed to someone who could get the party into a library. In my experience, I've never even seen the background features like the sage being able to get access to lore get used. It's always the ones where party members can leverage their background to get audiences with powerful people, like Noble and Guild Artisan. But maybe that's just how my tables happen to play out.
I agree with investigation being useful as an INT proficiency, but history is debatable to me. Additionally I don't want to change my background just to work in a useful skill prof (Investigation) and a situationally-useful prof (History) to give up two useful proficiencies like Insight and Persuasion when there's so much social interaction in Dragon Heist. Sure, Cat isn't really built for either of those checks, but that doesn't mean she should be unable to have a bonus to them. I don't want her to just be a walking encyclopedia who is good at finding things, I'd like her to have other skills as well. I don't think her having a positive modifier to her insight and persuasion skills is going to throw off the balance of a prospective party or step on anyone's toes. That being said, I'm a-okay with people that want to fill in niches that balance the party and am willing to accommodate that sort of advice. If we need some extra investigation buffs, I'm making the decision to not change Cat's background, but her ancestry. If I make her a half-elf she gets two bonus proficiencies at character creation, one of which I am going to make intelligence. I'm thinking of making the other one stealth. Instead of being a gnome, she'll be a half-elf adopted and raised by gnomes and thus has a name and attitude that fits with their culture.
Apologies if any of that sounded argumentative, that was not my intent, I just wanted to show that there was method to my madness.
I do like the idea of having Cat be buddies with Ben's prospective barb character. The opposites attract nature of the friendship sounds like a fun concept to play out, kind of like a Pike and Grog from Vox Machina sort of relationship. It gives her a bodyguard too ;)
As far as Kelytha goes, I like your idea, but Cat doesn't look down on anybody (well, she now literally has to look down on her family, but she can't help that she's taller than them). She was raised to treat everyone with respect and kindness. So maybe that's our in - maybe other kids in the neighborhood looked at you as a spoiled brat, but Cat was always a solid, if rather eccentric, support.
Thanks @MightyOwl for a great iteration on your character. I can see Cat being a lot of fun.
I'm am trying to create customisations in the game for each character that I hope you encounter and enjoy, which is why having a good understanding of your background is so useful to me at this point. I will miss the gnome, but as always it is your character. Based on this update I have a new idea that hopefully works out well as we are now Elf heritage heavy (evil DM laughing in the background).
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Gan-Re: Aarakocra Barbarian - The Wild Beyond the Witchlight | DM - Keys of Empire
I think of the two characters, you should of course play the one you're more excited about! We can adapt to whatever you throw at us. : )
Maybe unusual for a RPG player, but I'm more interested in being part of a cohesive party that manages to keep a fun campaign moving.
If the party wants me as a player but doesn't care which character, then I'd say barbarian just because it'll be a little less time and effort for me. (I think that I have a better handle on the barbarian class than on the monk.) I worry that he may be a little "flat": just a generic, low intelligence barbarian. The monk may be a little more unique, but I expect that it'll take me some time to work out the details of his personality and how the monk class works mechanically.
I think that it is very important you propose a character you want to play. Not just one that fits with the team.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Gan-Re: Aarakocra Barbarian - The Wild Beyond the Witchlight | DM - Keys of Empire
I think of the two characters, you should of course play the one you're more excited about! We can adapt to whatever you throw at us. : )
@groverbloom: Sorry I don't know how to do it on mobile, but maybe you could go on your phone's browser to the non-mobile site and do it that way?
I'm sorry I didn't know I was going to be critiqued on my character. Like the other said, I made choices creating my character based on my conception of them, not how they were going to mesh with the rest of the party. But like I also said, I'm perfectly fine flexing some things since the bard is usually good like that. As long as it doesn't take away from the character concept too much I'm probably going to be ok with whatever you all want to do.
Thank you, that worked. The main caveat is that you have to turn your phone sideways to be able to see the Tools bar🤣
If you still need someone up front, may I present:
Name: Kelytha Meliamne
Race and Class: Half High Elf / Paladin (unsure about subclass right now, probably Devotion)
Background: City Watch/Investigator
Character portrait:
Taken from here.
Character Backstory (Including how your character came to be in the Yawning Portal Inn): Born into the rising noble house of Meliamne, Kelytha's High Elf father tried in vain to raise her as a proper and correct Elven Lady of society. Perhaps it was the human part of her, or maybe it was just how she was created, but Kelytha could never settle with that lifestyle. From a young age she was playing in the dirt with the local children, mostly sons and daughters of tradespeople, actively avoiding the children of the other high families of Waterdeep. As they grew up, her friends all had to focus on their work, helping their families get by, and one by one they drifted away. On the brink of adulthood she surprised her father by announcing that she wanted to join the City Watch, something practical she could do to help the people of the City like her old friends, those without power. Her father forbade her but she left anyway, signing on that day.
For a few years it worked. Being given orders grated on her but she held her tongue. Her strength and charisma endeared her to the other watchmen, and she was even made a sergeant, one of the youngest on the Watch. But the same injustices she had seen while growing up were still there, perpetuated by a Watch that took its orders from some of the very people who needed investigating. One day an old childhood friend of hers was arrested - son of a blacksmith, in self-defence he had injured a wealthy patron who had become violent when not satisfied with her friend's work. The patron held sway with the Black Robes and her friend was sentenced to (death/life imprisonment?). Kelytha tried to help him escape, but he was spotted and brought down by the guards. There was no proof it was Kelytha who had helped him, but her Captain knew about their connection and suspended her. She never came back to the Watch - she sold the standard-issue shortsword and bought a longsword from the father of the man who had died. She took to investigating crimes personally, doing what she could to help those the Watch could not or would not help.
Today she finds herself in the Yawning Portal. Things have not been going well lately, and she is down to her last few Dragons. It's not a wise use of them, but she's going to drink her troubles away. Plus it's always entertaining to watch the adventurers go down the well.
Perhaps she recognises Eilla and Cat from her youth? Maybe they used to look down on her as a pretender from a rich family, or maybe they pitied her for her strict father? Kelytha is 23, so they are both older - maybe they didn't actually know each other that well, but enough to recognise from across the bar? As a youngish child, when they would have run in the same circles, I imagine she had a bit of an ego, reacting against her father but still holding herself a little above most others. That's certainly been knocked out of her by this point.
Character Personality: Kelytha is an easy person to like - she can be crude and loud, but never malicious. It's unclear how much of that is a mask, though - she knows how to be polite and civil, she was taught it by a succession of frustrated tutors, and can turn it on and off, but is her rough nature also a front, a deliberate reaction against her upbringing? She feels beholden to look after those who can't stand up for themselves, and will step into any situation where she feels someone is being bullied or taken advantage of, whether that is a wise decision or not. If not, she will never admit it, will never back down, whatever the outcome.
A link to your D&D Beyond Character Sheet: https://ddb.ac/characters/95950966/S1l0qu
DM - Storm King's Thunder
DM - Torosevia (WIP homebrew world)
Kelytha Meliamne - Matti Silverstorm - Silver - Star-Setting-In-The-East - Tor Baltos
Maybe unusual for a RPG player, but I'm more interested in being part of a cohesive party that manages to keep a fun campaign moving.
If the party wants me as a player but doesn't care which character, then I'd say barbarian just because it'll be a little less time and effort for me. (I think that I have a better handle on the barbarian class than on the monk.) I worry that he may be a little "flat": just a generic, low intelligence barbarian. The monk may be a little more unique, but I expect that it'll take me some time to work out the details of his personality and how the monk class works mechanically.
I actually think being interested and invested in your character and the other characters is critical to being part of a cohesive party that keeps a fun campaign moving, much more so than being mechanically "good", but I understand that people enjoy the game in different ways, I'm not saying that your way is wrong just to be tolerant of others playing the way they want to play as well. : )
Sinak would see the obvious strength and charisma in Kelytha, and know that this was not someone to be trifled with. He would observe her conversations, watch her from across the room. Like with the others, he worries that his “dark elf” heritage would lead to mistrust, false stereotypes, so he would be very careful not to advance those, careful in his words and actions. He would wait for the right opportunity to prove himself, to show that he is worthy of friendship, and a partner to be trusted.
A wizard is never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to.
Yep, it's all good! I just meant that I'm relatively new to PbP, and the way these recruitment threads works is new to me. All of my previous RPG experience was in person with people who were already friends the real world. Since we were always starting with the players first, everyone had to be a little flexible in building their characters.
What we’ve been doing in the recruitment thread is a little more of what would typically go on in the OOC chat thread as a “session 0”, but it is the DM’s call on how to do that and if it is helpful to be able to make a pick to round out the crew then I’m all for it.
A wizard is never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to.
Let's see, how would Eilla react to Kelytha? Assuming Eilla is 30 that would mean she would have known Kelytha no older than 11 or so assuming Eilla shipped off at 18. So she might have been protective of the younger Kelytha, just making sure she didn't get in trouble while slumming. Another possibility, Eilla has been back at Waterdeep several times in the years she's been sailing, so depending where Kelytha was stationed (Dock Ward most likely for this) they might have run into each other, either positively or negatively.
Thanks everyone for your engagement. I agree this is a bit like a session zero, which was partly my intention. I hope that we can all agree that we are here to have fun and that we all want excited and engaged players. I doubt that anyone is interested in a min /max character. There is very little point anyway as I will just scale the encounters appropriately. I hope that you all feel that your characters are your own and we are here to roleplay and select what works best for your characters. Obviously the party needs to work and the level of interaction and interest in each others characters in such a short time is impressive, which gives me a good feeling that we have knowledgeable and engaging players. From my experience of the players on this thread I would encourage anyone to see posts as positive engagement and no criticism would be intended.
I think that we are iterating towards a good party, much quicker than I was expecting, and I hope that you feel that this has been a useful and open process. My mad idea was to do this now to allow players the maximum amount of freedom and control, before I drop a dragon on you :-)
Based on the current progress, if the players are in agreement, I would hope to finalise selection over the next few days with the game starting on Saturday
Gan-Re: Aarakocra Barbarian - The Wild Beyond the Witchlight | DM - Keys of Empire
@EMIW. A really great character, I'm very impressed. I could see this fitting in really well with the rest of the team. The engagement with our resident Drow Cleric could be fun :-)
Gan-Re: Aarakocra Barbarian - The Wild Beyond the Witchlight | DM - Keys of Empire
Good point, Eilla was/is in the Marines yeah? Sailors are know for getting pretty rowdy when on shore leave :P Maybe Kelytha had to have a word with Eilla's unit one time, or break up a fight.
DM - Storm King's Thunder
DM - Torosevia (WIP homebrew world)
Kelytha Meliamne - Matti Silverstorm - Silver - Star-Setting-In-The-East - Tor Baltos
I am looking forward to the final party coming together! To be honest I've debated within myself a bit which college to go for Ballen, though Whispers is my first choice, but Spirits would be fun too. If there is a suggestion though to better fill a niche with the party though let me know! I think her heritage and background are pretty set, but perhaps some of her proficiencies could be moved around a little maybe.
Thanks, I thought Which of my 30 unused characters should I apply with? Then I thought None of them! A new character! I realise now that she's a collection of pretty common tropes but hopefully they work well together.
DM - Storm King's Thunder
DM - Torosevia (WIP homebrew world)
Kelytha Meliamne - Matti Silverstorm - Silver - Star-Setting-In-The-East - Tor Baltos
I have no doubt that everyone here has good intentions and just wants the game to go smoothly. That being said, I do wanna throw in my two cents to justify my decisions. The reason I made Cat a guild artisan in the first place is because Waterdeep has such an abundance of guilds and it's an oft-ignored portion of the world I was hoping to interact with that portion of the world. Sage is fine, I guess, but I don't really want to make Cat an academic. I'd rather her be an eccentric self-taught genius attached to a merchant guild as opposed to someone who could get the party into a library. In my experience, I've never even seen the background features like the sage being able to get access to lore get used. It's always the ones where party members can leverage their background to get audiences with powerful people, like Noble and Guild Artisan. But maybe that's just how my tables happen to play out.
I agree with investigation being useful as an INT proficiency, but history is debatable to me. Additionally I don't want to change my background just to work in a useful skill prof (Investigation) and a situationally-useful prof (History) to give up two useful proficiencies like Insight and Persuasion when there's so much social interaction in Dragon Heist. Sure, Cat isn't really built for either of those checks, but that doesn't mean she should be unable to have a bonus to them. I don't want her to just be a walking encyclopedia who is good at finding things, I'd like her to have other skills as well. I don't think her having a positive modifier to her insight and persuasion skills is going to throw off the balance of a prospective party or step on anyone's toes. That being said, I'm a-okay with people that want to fill in niches that balance the party and am willing to accommodate that sort of advice. If we need some extra investigation buffs, I'm making the decision to not change Cat's background, but her ancestry. If I make her a half-elf she gets two bonus proficiencies at character creation, one of which I am going to make intelligence. I'm thinking of making the other one stealth. Instead of being a gnome, she'll be a half-elf adopted and raised by gnomes and thus has a name and attitude that fits with their culture.
Apologies if any of that sounded argumentative, that was not my intent, I just wanted to show that there was method to my madness.
Here is Cat's new character sheet.
I do like the idea of having Cat be buddies with Ben's prospective barb character. The opposites attract nature of the friendship sounds like a fun concept to play out, kind of like a Pike and Grog from Vox Machina sort of relationship. It gives her a bodyguard too ;)
As far as Kelytha goes, I like your idea, but Cat doesn't look down on anybody (well, she now literally has to look down on her family, but she can't help that she's taller than them). She was raised to treat everyone with respect and kindness. So maybe that's our in - maybe other kids in the neighborhood looked at you as a spoiled brat, but Cat was always a solid, if rather eccentric, support.
Thanks @MightyOwl for a great iteration on your character. I can see Cat being a lot of fun.
I'm am trying to create customisations in the game for each character that I hope you encounter and enjoy, which is why having a good understanding of your background is so useful to me at this point. I will miss the gnome, but as always it is your character. Based on this update I have a new idea that hopefully works out well as we are now Elf heritage heavy (evil DM laughing in the background).
Gan-Re: Aarakocra Barbarian - The Wild Beyond the Witchlight | DM - Keys of Empire
It would be helpful to have a walking encyclopedia…. 🤣. (ignore the smart ass Drow)
A wizard is never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to.
I think that it is very important you propose a character you want to play. Not just one that fits with the team.
Gan-Re: Aarakocra Barbarian - The Wild Beyond the Witchlight | DM - Keys of Empire
The lone tiefling cackles quietly in the dark corner of the room.